He is good with numbers, though, and getting better all the time. You can see that clearly enough. Through 16 games this season for the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Olynyk averages a team-leading 18.1 points. In the past two games, against two of the West Coast Conference’s top teams, he scored 33 against Santa Clara and 31 against Saint Mary’s.

A relatively uneventful start -- well, it wasn’t totally uneventful, because he missed the first three games for an unspecified violation of the university’s conduct code -- Olynyk has produced 20-plus points in six of his past nine games.

Through 17 games, Gonzaga is 16-1 and bearing down on the possibility of earning the school’s first No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.

The best part: That 18.1 scoring average is exactly 18.1 points per game more than he produced a year ago. Olynyk redshirted in 2011-12, voluntarily sitting out every Zags game to preserve his year of eligibility for when there’d be fewer players competing for time at his position.

At power forward, Gonzaga had Elias Harris, now a four-year starter. At center was Robert Sacre, now with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“You’re between a rock and a hard place,” Olynyk told Sporting News.

Behind Harris and Sacre was 6-9 Sam Dower, so the team could afford the luxury of not using Olynyk.

Olynyk’s goal while not playing was simply to get better. He wasn’t overwhelmingly strong earlier in his career, so he wanted to get stronger. It’s rare enough in basketball for players to sit out without being injured, but few do it midway through their careers. Olynyk, now a fourth-year junior, said it allowed him to recognize the areas he needed to develop.

“I didn’t try to say, ‘During this year I’m going to try to put on 15 or 20 pounds,’ ” Olynyk said. “I just went with trying to get stronger and leaner, so I could get to different positions in different ways and use that advantage. It was trying to tone yourself and make yourself stronger, so you didn’t get pushed off the ball. I definitely feel a difference from sophomore year to now.”

When Olynyk played in 2010-11, he averaged only 5.8 points and 3.8 rebounds. So naturally there has been a tremendous amount of discussion about how much he used the redshirt year to improve.

And though there certainly is truth to that, it is a bit more complicated. Because anyone who saw Olynyk play with the Canadian national team recognize there was considerable ability there. At 19, he competed at the FIBA World Championships. He was two years younger than anybody else on the team, younger than most anyone in the tournament.

Canada lost its four games in Turkey, but Olynyk played extended minutes against respected teams from both France and Spain. He scored 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting against the French and then rang up 14 points on 3-of-7 shooting against the Spain frontcourt that included Marc Gasol, Fran Vazquez and Jorge Garbajosa.

“He didn’t just become an outstanding college player overnight because of one year of redshirting,” said ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla, who covered the World Championships for the network. “The talent was there. The confidence was there from his time on the Canadian national team, and those ingredients combined with a 12-month program of hard work -- committing to be more of an inside player -- transformed him.”

Olynyk wasn’t entirely on board with the whole redshirting idea. Heck, he wasn’t always on board with the whole “Gonzaga” idea. He acknowledged to Sporting News that at one point he pondered transferring. He knew he was sitting behind more experienced players, guys who had real talent, but he also knew he could play.

“I think everyone who isn’t satisfied has thoughts cross their minds about that sort of thing,” Olynyk said. “But I talked to the coaches and we had long discussions, and we made a plan that would work in the end.

“In the end, I think I made the right decision.”

The plan to redshirt was concocted before the 2011-12 season, but Olynyk still was debating its wisdom when he fell during a pickup game and wound up with a concussion. He missed several weeks of practice time. He now looks at that as “a great thing that happened.” Sounds strange, but look at him now.

“I knew the minutes I wanted to play -- and I think I deserve to play -- weren’t there because of Rob and Elias,” he said. “The redshirt idea was definitely in place, but it wasn’t by any means finalized.

“I think that kind of solidified the deal.”

Olynyk still moves more like a forward than a center, and he still likes to shoot facing the goal. He is deadly on foul-line jumpers but has restricted his 3-point attempts to only 13 on the season, less than one per game. That’s less than half as often as he fired from deep when he competed at the Worlds.

In the low post, he does less with upper body physicality than with superior footwork. You won’t see as many straight jump-hooks after he establishes position as you will up-and-unders. Fraschilla compares Olynyk working the low post to a pitcher who’ll nibble on the corners against a hitter and then blow away the next with fastballs.

“He is all about guile in the low post -- knowing angles, getting you up off your feet, sliding under,” Fraschilla said. “Even at 7 feet, he’s not an above-the-rim post player. He’s a very cerebral player. He understands what the defense is trying to take away, and he attacks you in that manner.”

It is Olynyk’s intent to eventually pursue either a Master’s in Accounting or, more likely, an MBA. But the way he has blossomed, he’ll probably get to the NBA before getting around to either.